Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexis Voss.
Alexis, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Since I was a little girl, I have always loved to draw. Growing up bi-racial in a small, prominently white town, I never really got to experience and appreciate how diverse the world really was until I graduated high school. During the pandemic, I gave birth to my second son, and like many others, my mental health was on the decline; I started to use drawing as a form of therapy. I combined my passion for women’s rights & racial equality with my love of drawing & created a collage of women holding protest signs. One day, I felt brave enough to post it on my Instagram story, and to my surprise, people were interested in buying it. My family & I relocated to Columbus, Ohio & I had a really strong feeling moving here would jumpstart my career as an artist. It’s safe to say my intuition was right. Since then, I’ve created and sold hundreds of drawings of women of all shades & sizes that now occupy homes, studios, salons, and offices. I’ve had the pleasure of working with local shops and displaying & selling my artwork in a gallery. Now, I’ve expanded to clothing. I paint jean jackets & I’ve also created an Etsy page where I sell crewnecks with my artwork printed on them! My mission is & has always been to be inclusive & make everyone feel seen.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Sharing my artwork with the people has definitely had its challenges. Ultimately, I just had to get out of my own way and leave the thought of “not being good enough” behind. Being an artist has its highs and lows. Some weeks I’m booked and busy; others, it’s crickets. I’ve learned over the years not to get discouraged and just ride out the waves of this industry. I would say one of the biggest obstacles for me is balancing home and work life. Being a stay-at-home mom is a full-time job. On top of that, I have a 9-year-old who is in school & sports, a husband who is a college football coach, and then there’s me. Actually, finding the time to sit down to create and make time for myself is a luxury.
I draw women – I am so inspired by the strong, powerful, and diverse women around me, so one day, I decided to start drawing them. I always make it my mission to have women of all different sizes and shades so my artwork can relate to everyone. I like to include what I’m passionate about in my work, which could be adding a quote or uplifting saying in regards to mental health, women empowerment, or racial equality. I take custom orders, so every so often, I’ll do family portraits, wedding save-the-dates, or even animals, but drawing women brings me the most joy. I am a marker artist mostly, but I also enjoy watercolors. Over the years, I’d like to explore and find different mediums to use, but coloring with markers really brings out my inner child, and I absolutely love that. It’s funny, I started a blog back in 2018 and always thought I would be known as writer, but I know now I don’t have to pick and choose; I can be both. Within the year, I plan on combining the two and publishing my first book, an adult coloring book. I think what sets me apart from others is my style of drawing. I don’t enjoy drawing facial expressions or anatomical features, so to put it simply, I don’t. I will never have all the same shade of women because diversity is beautiful, and will always draw women with different body shapes & sizes because nobody is the same and nobody is perfect. I am really proud of myself for taking what I’m passionate about and turning it into not only something I love and enjoy to do but that I’m able to contribute to my family financially with. I have always dreamed of being able to have a job I would do for free because I just loved it that much, so a day doesn’t go by where I’m not appreciative of the position I’m in & all the people who have bought my artwork and other creations.
I wouldn’t say much of either has played a part. I am very fortunate to have been gifted with so many creative talents. Growing up, I would sing in choir, I played the drums for seven years, and I danced for almost 10. I went to cosmetology school after high school, thinking that was where my purpose in this world was, but I had bad luck with the salons I chose to work in and left the industry. I definitely spent a good five years thinking I had no purpose and feeling like I was “just” a mom (friendly reminder, you’re not “just” a mom; you’re a whole human being doing one of the hardest jobs in the world.) I guess creativity has just always came easy to me, so maybe that’s luck, but I think it’s a gift. If anything, I was just lucky people liked my artwork enough to want to pay for them.
Contact Info:
- Website: artwork: https://alexismvoss.blogspot.com apparel: https://www.etsy.com/shop/alexisvosscreations
- Instagram: for activism & writing: https://www.instagram.com/alexismvoss (@alexismvoss) for all things art: https://www.instagram.com/alexisvosscreations (@alexisvosscreations)
Image Credits
Nick Banton
